Inocente on Wednesday confirmed news of the bout to Sherdog.com.
The former Shooto South America 220-pound champion has fully
recovered from a recent hand surgery and is currently training in
Brasilia alongside UFC fighters Paulo
Thiago and Rani Yahya at
Constrictor Team. Inocente will return to the U.S. on June 20
to continue his preparations at
Imperial Athletics in Boca Raton, Fla., and hopefully find out
a little more about his opponent.

“It was hard to find information about this guy,” Inocente told
Sherdog.com of Lanham, a training partner of Keith
Jardine. “I found one fight of his on YouTube, and people from
Imperial Athletics are already looking for more information. I also
know he’s from New Mexico, a Kyokushin karate specialist, with a
good wrestling game, and has ended all three of his fights in the
first round.”

Despite the lack of details on Lanham, the Brazilian believes his
strong training partners in Brasilia and in Florida will help him
to make a successful debut in Strikeforce.

“In Brasilia, beyond training at Constrictor, I’m doing hard work
at Cerrado Thai and physical preparation with Lula Guerreiro,” said
Inocente. “My dad is helping me with my striking, and in the U.S.,
I’ll have partners like Antonio
Silva, Danillo
and Yuri
Villefort, Jorge
Santiago, and coaches like Mike Van
Arsdale, Jorge Babu and Diogenes [Asahida].”

Excited to resume training in the States, Inocente is also looking
forward to meeting one of his MMA idols.

“I haven’t met Rashad
Evans yet, because he arrived at Imperial at the same time I
was flying back to Brazil to have my surgery,” said Inocente. “I’m
so excited to get back to the U.S. and meet him, train with him,
learn some of his wrestling techniques. I believe my camp will make
the difference. There are so many high-level fighters there, and
training with those guys makes me feel ready for anyone. I’m really
confident.”

While Inocente inked a deal with Strikeforce in February, he very
nearly wound up in the Octagon. The fighter told Sherdog.com that
he was offered a four-bout
UFC deal, with the first fight coming at heavyweight and the
latter three at 205 pounds. Tempted though he was to join the
world’s top MMA promotion, Inocente sadly declined on the advice of
his team.

“When we started talking [to Strikeforce], at the same time, we got
a proposal from the UFC,” Inocente said. “They wanted me to fight
first at heavyweight, to replace someone who had pulled out of a
fight. My dad and my coaches talked and decided to deny that offer.
I was so excited to fight. I wanted to compete, even against a
heavyweight fighter... but today, I believe we’ve made the right
choice.

“I need to get more experience. I have a six-fight deal with
Strikeforce, and sooner or later, I’ll be in the UFC. The two
promotions are almost the same thing now. The people from Zuffa
said [at May’s Fighter Summit in Las Vegas] that they’ll try to do
with Strikeforce what they’ve done with UFC. I’m excited to fight
there. It will be a great chance to develop.”